WUKY asked Beshear about the shock gloves during Thursday's Team Kentucky update. Beshear said his concern is not with the technology itself, but with how ICE agents may use it.
“My concern isn’t that they exist or that there’s a contract for them; it’s that they are going to the worst-trained, most aggressive law enforcement unit I have ever seen,” Beshear said. "Every ICE agent needs to be withdrawn, retrained, and actually taught what the law does and does not allow."
The Department of Homeland Security said in an Aug. 10 notice that the devices, known as Generated Low Output Voltage Emitters, or G.L.O.V.E., will be issued to agents with Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Beshear said he supports enforcing immigration laws and maintaining strong borders, but questioned the tactics being used by federal immigration agents.
“We should apprehend illegal immigrants that have committed crimes,” Beshear said. “We have to enforce our overall immigration laws; we need strong borders, but how we go about doing that shows our humanity or lack of it.”
The ACLU of Kentucky is also raising concerns about whether ICE should have access to more forceful tools without greater transparency, oversight and accountability.
As ICE faces growing scrutiny over how federal immigration agents are carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, the Department of Homeland Security says it will ensure agents have the equipment they need to safely make arrests and remove people who are in the country illegally. The agency also says agents do receive regular use-of-force training.
